A year ago, a different sort of tragedy ripped a Sonoma family apart. It was Dec. 6, 2008, and Craig Von Dohlen, unhinged by methamphetamines and threatening sheriff deputies with a loaded gun, was shot dead in his family’s driveway.
A small measure of closure came Monday. The four Sonoma County Sheriffs Deputies involved in the fatal shooting were legally justified in using deadly force in defense of themselves and others, District Attorney Stephan R. Passalacqua announced.
“This was a tragic incident for both the Von Dohlen family and the deputies who were doing their jobs,” Passalacqua said in a statement. “This incident is another example of the lethal combination of using methamphetamine and being armed with a gun.”
On that fateful Saturday, the four officers responded to a 9-1-1 call regarding a man with a loaded weapon, under the influence of drugs, and threatening to shoot his father.
At the end of a driveway on Napa Road, near Broadway, the officers encountered 37-year-old Craig Von Dohlen. He faced them about 50 feet away, holding a .22 caliber rifle. Ignoring orders to drop the gun and get down, Passalacqua reported Von Dohlen screamed and charged up the driveway toward the deputies.
When he was about 20 feet away he pointed the rifle at the officers, who reacted by firing their service weapons. According to Passalacqua, the behavior was intended “to invoke a lethal response from law enforcement.”
It did. He was shot 10 times, and died soon thereafter. The family questioned why some of the shots came after the initial volley had knocked Van Dohlen to the ground. Though wounded, he continued to reach for his loaded rifle, investigators explained at the time.
According to the coroner’s report, Von Dohlen’s blood contained a toxic, near-fatal amount of methamphetamine.
Officer-involved fatalities follow a protocol of inquiry. In this case, the Santa Rosa Police Department was the lead agency. The Sonoma County District Attorney’s Office then reviewed the investigation.
Monday’s announcement said, after a year-long review, the district attorney found no evidence of criminal liability on the part of any member of the Sheriff’s Office.
